mollusc

See also: mol·lusc

English

Alternative forms

• mollusk (US)
• mollusque (archaic)

Etymology

Borrowed from French mollusque, from New Latin Mollusca (phylum name), from Latin molluscus (“thin-shelled”), from mollis (“soft”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɒləsk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑləsk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

mollusc (plural molluscs)

1. A soft-bodied invertebrate of the phylum Mollusca, typically with a hard shell of one or more pieces.

   Hyponym: conchiferan

   bivalve molluscs

   • 2016 January 21, “Choose Your Weaponry: Selective Storage of a Single Toxic Compound, Latrunculin A, by Closely Related Nudibranch Molluscs”, in PLOS ONE‎^[1], →DOI:

     For example, the antitumour depsipeptide kahalalide F was isolated from the opisthobranch mollusc Elysia rufescens, and is used by both the mollusc and its dietary alga Bryopsis spp.

   • 2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherworlds, Penguin, published 2023, page 25:

     Searching for hard-shelled prey – molluscs, crabs and the like – there are two species of bear otter in Kanapoi.

2. (figuratively) A weak-willed person.

   Synonyms: little girl, nose of wax, pushover

Translations

soft-bodied invertebrate of phylum Mollusca — see also clam,‎ oyster,‎ mussel

• Abenaki: als
• Afrikaans: weekdier (af)
• Albanian: butak (sq) m
• Arabic: رِخْوِيّ m (riḵwiyy)
• Armenian: կակղամորթ (hy) (kakġamortʻ), մոլյուսկ (hy) (molyusk), փափկամորթ (hy) (pʻapʻkamortʻ)
• Asturian: moluscu (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: molyusk
• Belarusian: малю́ск m (maljúsk), мяккаце́лы m (mjakkacjély)
• Bengali: খোলকী (khōloki)
• Breton: blotvil (br)
• Bulgarian: мекоте́ло (bg) n (mekotélo)
• Burmese: ခရု (my) (hka.ru.)
• Catalan: mol·lusc (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 軟體動物 / 软体动物 (zh) (ruǎntǐ dòngwù)

• Czech: měkkýš (cs) m
• Danish: bløddyr (da) n, mollusk c
• Dutch: weekdier (nl) n, mollusk (nl)
• Esperanto: molusko (eo)
• Estonian: mollusk (et)
• Finnish: nilviäinen (fi)
• French: mollusque (fr)
• Galician: molusco (gl) m
• Georgian: მოლუსკი (molusḳi)
• German: Weichtier (de) n, Molluske (de) f
• Greek: μαλάκιο (el) n (malákio)
• Haitian Creole: molisc
• Hebrew: רַכִּיכָה (he) f (rakikhá)
• Hindi: सीप (hi) m (sīp), मोलस्क (molask)
• Hungarian: puhatestű (hu)
• Icelandic: lindýr (is) n
• Ido: molusko (io)
• Indonesian: moluska (id)
• Irish: moileasc m
• Italian: mollusco (it) m
• Japanese: 軟体動物 (ja) (なんたいどうぶつ, nantai dōbutsu)
• Kannada: ಮೃದ್ವಂಗಿ (kn) (mṛdvaṅgi)
• Kazakh: жұмсақденелі (jūmsaqdenelı)
• Khmer: ខ្យង (km) (khyɑɑng)
• Korean: 연체동물(軟體動物) (ko) (yeonchedongmul)
• Kyrgyz: моллюск (mollyusk)
• Lao: ຫອຽ, ຫອຍ, ສັງຂາ (sang khā)
• Latvian: molusks m, gliemis m
• Lithuanian: moliuskas (lt) m, minkštakūnis m
• Macedonian: мекотел m (mekotel)
• Malay: moluska
• Malayalam: മൊളസ്ക (moḷaska)
• Maori: kaiwhao
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: нальахн хорхой (nalʹaxn xorxoj)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bløtdyr n

• Occitan: molusc (oc) m
• Persian: نرمتنان (fa) (narmtanān)
• Polish: mięczak (pl) m
• Portuguese: molusco (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਮੋਲਸਕਾ (molsakā)
• Romanian: moluscă (ro) f
• Russian: моллю́ск (ru) m (molljúsk), мягкоте́лый (ru) m (mjaxkotélyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: меку́шац m

  Roman: mekúšac (sh) m

• Slovak: mäkkýš (sk) m
• Slovene: mehkužec (sl) m
• Spanish: molusco (es) m
• Swedish: blötdjur (sv) n, mollusk (sv) c
• Tagalog: molusk, kumabibi
• Tajik: моллюск (mollyusk)
• Thai: หอย (th) (hɔ̌i)
• Turkish: yumuşakça (tr)
• Turkmen: mollýusk
• Ukrainian: молю́ск m (moljúsk), м'якоті́лий m (mʺjakotílyj)
• Urdu: مولسک (molask)
• Uzbek: mollyusk
• Vietnamese: động vật thân mềm
• Walloon: molusse (wa) m
• Welsh: meddalog m
• Yiddish: מאָללוסק (mollusk)

References

• Mollusca on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “mollusc”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• “mollusc”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "mollusc" in On-line Medical Dictionary, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1997–2005.
• "mollusc" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.

Anagrams

• Collums, Culloms